[Closed] How's the UK at the moment?

Weird thing this recession.

At work we have more work than ever, on target for best ever year and we can't recruit fast enough due to lack of skilled people in the market place.

The local car dealer won't even bother to return my call regarding buying a VRS as demand is so strong they don't need to bother.

I can't get anyone to chop down a tree for months as they're all too busy and the street is full of skips and neighbours having extensions / loft conversions built.

We've never had it so good (in Cambridge that is).

"The Economy of Brazil is the world's eighth largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth largest by purchasing power parity. It's economy is the largest among all South American nations and the second largest in the western hemisphere."

Poor Brazil eh?

Yeah but how much of that wealth gets to the majority of people in Brazil?

As for the original question; Britain's a lot better off than most places on Earth, I'd say. Gonna get relatively a bit shitter now this useless bunch of self-serving shysters are in government, but overall, I'm glad I live in Britain, rather than a lot of other places.

How's the UK at the momeny? Well that probably depends on where you are. In much of the south east, where economy is driven to a large extent by things like The City, high tech business and tourism, things are fairly good. In places like the North East and South Wales with a large proportion of the work coming via the state and high levels of benefits/unemployment the tough times are here/coming.

Although talking to friends and customers in Greece/Ireland/Spain we are way better off in the UK.

Going to Germany you wouldn't think "recession" in any way.

Although talk to friends and customers in Greece/Ireland/Spain we are way better off.

Currently in Spain 😥 .

What business are you in tonyg2003?

iDave - you asked in "what basis do you think Brazil is a 'poor country'?".

I consider Brazil is poor in terms of standard of living. In the same way I consider the Chinese to be poor despite the fact their country has the second largest economy in the world.

The majority of the 19% who voted for the Green Party candidate in Brazil's presidential election, would not have been wealthy by our standards.

If you prefer, I could have said "poor people in a third world country" rather than "poor people in a poor country".

But I reckon you should have been able figure all that out for yourself iDave ......I think most other people probably did.

Hi Don Simon

I work in biotech, genetic testing and IVF.

Greece and Ireland seems particularly to be in a bad way, Spain slightly less so.

In Brazil and Argentina we are doing plenty of business but India and China are the way forward!

Brazil isn't a third world country though is it?

25 million have moved out of poverty in the last 10 years

given that I work in financial services in Sao Paulo and Rio, I have some idea of the current situation

Do you own a passport or just an internet connection ernie?

Is the term 'third world' synonymous with 'poor'? I don't think so. Third world surely is a geographical term?

If you prefer the term 'developing country' then surely Brazil is still developing towards the living standards of 'the West'..? Is it?

Yeah I have a passport and have been to Sao Paulo .......although only to change planes.

I consider Brazil to be a third world country, as I do also Argentina. And yes, I've been to Argentina. I even lived there actually.

EDIT : RE : [i]"given that I work in financial services in Sao Paulo and Rio, I have some idea of the current situation"[/i]

But you didn't know that the Argentine economy is preforming better than the Brazilian economy ?

I can't get anyone to chop down a tree for months as they're all too busy

But you didn't know that the Argentine economy is preforming better than the Brazilian economy ?

I didn't know how wrong you were comrade. And I stated that the Argentinian economy would benefit from the strength of the Brazilian economy. Don't you think it would?

Argentina
GDP $310.1 billion
GDP growth 0.9%
GDP per capita $7,725

Brazil
GDP $1.574 trillion
GDP growth 8.8%
GDP per capita $8,220

And as for thinking they're 'third world' you really have sat on a lot of planes haven't you? Have you been to an actual developing as opposed to emerging economy? Quite a difference. Can't remember the helicopter count being so high in Ulaan Baatar compared with Sao Paulo...

I didn't know how wrong you were comrade.

That's because [u]your[/u] Wikipedia figures are wrong iDave.

Those figures refer to Argentine growth during the height of the global recession in 2009, and the (early) predicted growth for the Brazilian economy [u]this[/u] year.

Yes the Argentine economy only grew by 0.9% last year. But the Brazil economy did even worst..........it didn't grow at all - it shrunk by 0.2%

[url= http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90778/90858/90864/6916754.html ]Brazil's GDP contracts 0.2 % in 2009[/url]

I have already provided you with a link which shows that the Argentine economy will grow by 8.5% this year. Here it is again :

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/20/argentina-poll-kirchner-return-cristina

Quote :

[i]"After stalling last year, economic growth is predicted to grow by 8.5% this year."[/i]

This compares with 7.53% growth in the Brazilian economy :

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-09-27/brazilian-economists-predict-faster-growth-inflation-in-2010.html

Quote :

[i]"The economy will expand 7.53 percent in 2010, up from a week-earlier forecast of 7.47 percent, according to the median forecast in a Sept. 24 [u]central bank survey of about 100 economists[/u] published today. That would be the fastest growth since 1985, when the economy expanded 7.85 percent."[/i]

The Argentine economy grew by 9% every year between 2003 and 2007 and 7% in 2008. Last year because of the global recession it only grew by 0.9%, but this year it is back approaching 9%.

I repeat my original claim : [i]The Argentine economy is doing rather better than the Brazilian economy[/i]

Sure, Argentina benefits from a healthy Brazilian economy - she does after all, for example, need export markets. But the reason the Argentine economy has gone from the total disastrous financial crises of 2002 to become the fastest growing economy in Latin America, has nothing at all to do with Brazil.

It is as a direct result of the [u]Argentine government's[/u] economic policies. If those policies were abandoned then there little doubt that the Argentine economy would begin to splutter again.........whatever Brazil does.

[url= http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-weisbrot/argentina-elects-cristina_b_70730.html ]Argentina the fastest-growing economy in the Western Hemisphere[/url]

Note : [i]"Contrary to a common belief, Argentina's expansion was not based on exports or high commodity prices: only about 13 percent of the growth during the whole expansion was due to exports."[/i]

.

As far as me thinking they are 'third world', molgrips has already pointed out that it is often seen as a geographical term :

[img] [/img]

Although it does have striking similarities with GDP distribution :

[img] [/img]

But hey idave, if you are really unhappy with my comment about 'poor people in a third world country voting Green', then I will gladly withdraw it ........just to make you happy like 8)

And btw iDave, that passport you were asking me about ...... perhaps I should have mentioned - it would have been Argentine, had my mother not left Argentina when she was 8 months pregnant with me. In fact, most of the people who are related to me in this world have Argentine passports/live in Argentina 🙂